Auditors As Advocates For Their Clients: Perceptions Of The Auditor-Client Relationship

Abstract

Recently auditors have come under increasing criticism for appearing to act as advocates on behalf of their audit clients. Such criticisms strike at the very heart of the public accounting profession the publics trust of the auditors. Given the considerable importance of this issue we conducted a survey of one national accounting firms auditing managers and senior managers to ascertain their attitudes regarding such advocacy. Results suggest that some members of the firm view their role somewhat differently than the traditional watchdog role commonly ascribed to them. Implications of our study as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.